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SDS Hosts Pueblo Boys and Girls Club for Career Day
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The Southern Delivery System (SDS) Juniper Pump Station team hosted about 30 young people (ages 9 to 13) from the Pueblo Boys and Girls Club Friday, Nov. 7, for an afternoon of educational, hands-on activities at the construction site in Lake Pueblo State Park.
"It's great that the SDS team took the time to introduce these kids to this line of work that is out there," said Dave Pate, who sits on the Pueblo Boys and Girls Club Board of Directors and accompanied the club on the field trip. "This really opened their eyes. A lot of these kids don't know that there are these types of career opportunities right in their back yard."
The visit provided a fun and interactive experience for the youth to learn more about careers in construction and engineering while also showing them how pipelines and pump stations deliver water. A variety of career professionals associated with the SDS project from Archer Western Construction, MWH, and Colorado Parks and Wildlife, led the groups of children as they sat inside construction equipment, constructed a model pipeline and water delivery system, learned about wildlife from a Park Ranger, practiced surveying and toured nearby construction work.
“This was a phenomenal opportunity for our youth to be exposed to a wide variety of careers, especially for our girls who are not always introduced to the vast possibilities available to them in nontraditional STEM careers," said Becky Medina, Vice President of Operations for the Pueblo Boys & Girls Club.
The Pueblo Boys and Girls Club works with young people from challenging economic, social, and family circumstances to ensure that they have greater access to quality programs and services that will enrich their lives and futures. The field trip to the SDS construction site supports the club’s mission to help area youth learn and grow, build skills, develop strong character and experience new opportunities. SDS is a regional project that will deliver water to Colorado Springs, Fountain, Security and Pueblo West once complete in 2016. The project is one of the largest water-related construction projects currently underway in the Western United States and offered the group a rare behind-the-scenes experience.
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